1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to cloud storage systems, and more particularly to systems and methods for providing clients access to files via a remote cloud storage system. Even more particularly, the invention relates to systems and methods for facilitating data security, providing users access to files stored at a client site using the remote cloud storage system, to provide efficient browsing and file access, and to provide faster synchronization in hybrid cloud storage solutions.
2. Description of the Background Art
Cloud Storage has rapidly become a credible part of a company's information technology (IT) infrastructure. Most organizations are evaluating cloud storage in some manner and plan to make it an essential part of the landscape.
The drivers for cloud storage adoption vary depending on the use case. Easy accessibility to data anywhere on any device, particularly phones and tablets, and ease of file sharing rank high for end-users. For IT, the ability to deliver these new capabilities without an increase in capital expenditures (CAPEX) and management overhead justifies the promise of the cloud. Additionally, the cloud presents an opportunity to revisit traditional infrastructure investments (such as on-premise storage, virtual private networking (VPN), etc.) and offload these services to the cloud.
While cloud storage offers tremendous benefits for both users and IT, it is still in the early stages of adoption. Though cloud storage growth is poised to be strong over the next few years, there are several factors that stand in the way of uptake and full acceptance.
Security is one of the major hurdles in moving to the cloud. While each company and industry vertical has different needs, certain data sets and use cases preclude data being stored in the cloud. In such cases organizations prefer to keep data on premises in order to meet specific security and compliance needs.
Businesses have to satisfy many use cases where pure cloud based storage is not practical for access. For example, if users need to work with large files such as CAD drawings, videos or images that are hundreds of megabytes (MBs), pure cloud access through the internet is impractical. The latency associated with opening and editing such large files from a cloud-based server is prohibitive. This is where traditional on-premise storage continues to play an important role because files can be accessed at LAN speeds.
In addition, businesses have invested in a range of on-premise storage over the last few decades. Petabytes (PBs) of data resides on-premise. Leveraging the cloud requires moving (i.e. migrating) data from on-premise servers to the cloud. This process can be cumbersome at best. Recent surveys indicate that less than 10% of enterprise data is currently in the cloud. Over 90% still resides on-premise and business users demand “cloud-like ability” for on-premise data, i.e. secure mobile access and sharing of legacy files that resides on-premise.
While the actual storage and underlying security are of great concern and importance to IT, they are not to end users. End users want timely access and mobility of their files so they can get their jobs done. If IT cannot deliver such a solution, end users will find a way around IT. Such rogue practices place corporate data at great risk.
The vendor landscape for cloud storage has developed to satisfy these varying needs. Solution providers classify themselves along Public and Private cloud dimensions. Public cloud providers host all customer files on their own storage or leverage 3rd party storage providers such as Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage. They manage all the software and storage on behalf of the customer thereby completely alleviating any management overhead on the part of IT. IT can rent these capabilities on a subscription basis. Public cloud solutions have led the rise of cloud storage in the enterprise. However, as discussed earlier a pure public cloud model is not viable for use cases where performance is a consideration and for scenarios where data cannot be placed in the public cloud.
Private cloud solutions provide IT with software that can be run and hosted within the customer data center, allowing the customer to store data on-premises and deliver public cloud like capabilities to users. While these solutions allow data to be stored on customer premises, they impose on IT the need to host, manage, and upgrade the software, which significantly diminishes the value provided by a private cloud model. Private cloud solutions represent a return to the traditional world of installed on-premises software.
Current vendor offerings force IT to choose different solutions for different use cases, thereby increasing complexity and costs. IT has to characterize files and use cases along Red and Green categories, where Green file sets can be hosted in the public cloud but Red files need to strictly stay on-premises. IT then has the option to implement a Private Cloud solution for Red files and use cases, while opting for public cloud in the case of Green files and use cases.
This approach is far from ideal. File access is fragmented for end users, with different access points and applications from different vendors for Green vs. Red files. IT still has to host and manage software increasing CAPEX and operational expenditures (OPEX). Additionally, this creates data silos across different storage platforms and adds complexity to the landscape. Some organizational data sits on-premise, other data in the public cloud without any bridge between the two.
The current vendor landscape and solution architectures leave a lot to be desired. Organizations are forced to choose between convenience and security.
What is needed, therefore, are systems and methods for providing “cloud-like ability” for on-premise, private data.